The legislation places the onus for providing learning opportunities on the state but does not contain any concrete measures to fund.

Opposition party-submitted resolutions rebuking Finance Minister Taro Aso for his refusal to receive a report questioning the ability of the country's pension system to meet retirees' needs were voted down in the Diet on Friday. The House of Representatives rejected a no-confidence motion against Aso, ...

At first, in her desperate calls home to her mother in Pakistan, Natasha Masih couldn't bring herself to say what they were doing to her. All the 19-year-old would say was that her new husband — a Chinese man her family sold her off to ...

Millions of pigs have been culled in China and Vietnam as a U.N. food agency urges Asian governments to make containing virulent African swine fever their top priority. With an announcement by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization that infections have spread to Laos, some ...

The French carmaker is getting a seat on Nissan’s board committees, signaling an end to a dispute that had poisoned the world’s largest auto alliance.

The Defense Ministry said on Thursday that Russian bombers had violated southern Japanese airspace, prompting Air Self-Defense Force fighters to scramble and escort the planes out of the area. Two Tu-95 bombers entered Japanese airspace near Minamidaito Island in Okinawa Prefecture for about three minutes ...

Drivers and motorcyclists 75 or older caused 8.2 fatal accidents per 100,000 licensed motorists last year, about 2.4 times that caused by everyone else.

In late January 2016, the lights were on well past midnight on the seventh floor of the Bank of Japan's headquarters. Inside, a handful of bureaucrats were working on a shock plan. It was almost three years into central bank Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda's audacious campaign ...

Thousands of people dressed in black marched in Hong Kong on Friday to press for the total withdrawal of a controversial extradition bill that has triggered violent protests and plunged the financial hub into political crisis. Demonstrators, mostly students wearing hard hats, goggles and face ...

Both crew members escaped unharmed from a multipurpose military helicopter that made a crash landing at its camp in Tachikawa, western Tokyo, on Friday, the Ground Self-Defense Force said. The UH-1J helicopter was being flown in an emergency landing training exercise when it came down ...

Unlike Pyeongchang and Rio, an expert who follows ticketing patterns for major events estimates 80 to 90 percent of applicants in Japan might get nothing for the Tokyo Olympics.

U.S. President Donald Trump played down Iran's downing of a U.S. military surveillance drone on Thursday, saying he suspected it was shot by mistake and "it would have made a big difference" to him had the remotely controlled aircraft been piloted. The New York Times ...

Fervent Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson and foreign minister Jeremy Hunt emerged on Thursday as the only two candidates left in the race to become British prime minister, with the flamboyant Johnson odds-on favorite to win next month. Despite a series of scandals in the past ...

U.S. President Donald Trump's meetings with Xi, Putin and Erdogan will set the tone at the G20 summit in Osaka.

If China really is the new focus of Western security, why is Trump picking fights in the Middle East?

Kyushu is a dream destination for pottery lovers, with famous pottery villages including Arita, Onta and Koishiwara, and museums dedicated to the history of the artform.

If there’s one thing I’ve missed since moving from the U.K. to Japan, it’s the taste of a good smoothie. So it was with an ecstatic yelp that I saw the news that Innocent will be launching a range of smoothies in Japan on ...

Previously on "Terrace House": Risako takes a drastic — some may even say desperate — step of winning the charming Ruka over by flat out telling him to "date me," in what has been one of the show's more exciting proclamations of romantic intent. ...

The rope is no wider than his thumb, the height is 25 stories up and the length is five city blocks, but what really concerns aerialist Nik Wallenda about his high-wire walk in New York on Sunday is his sister. Wallenda and his sister, Lijana, ...

Pinch hitter Shuhei Fukuda broke a 2-2 tie with a sixth-inning grand slam to lift the interleague-leading Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to an 8-3 come-from-behind victory over the Yomiuri Giants on Friday. Hawks starter Kodai Senga (7-2) allowed two runs as he scattered six hits and ...

Chelsea has appointed its former goalkeeper Petr Cech as technical and performance adviser, the Premier League club announced on Friday. Cech spent 11 years as a player at Chelsea, winning 13 major trophies, including four Premier League titles and the Champions League, before moving to ...

Chris Froome left Saint-Etienne Hospital on Thursday a week after the horrific crash that ruled him out of next month's Tour de France. The four-time Tour champion was transferred to an undisclosed rehabilitation center specializing in getting top athletes back on their feet as quickly ...

Sagan Tosu forward Fernando Torres, a former Atletico Madrid, Liverpool and Chelsea star who won the 2011 World Cup with Spain, announced Friday he was retiring. "I have something very important to announce. After 18 exciting years, the time has come to put an end ...

Newcomer Koji Miyoshi scored in both halves for Japan as Hajime Moriyasu's young side matched Uruguay in an entertaining 2-2 draw Thursday at the Copa America in Brazil. Luis Suarez equalized from the penalty spot after Japan took a surprise 1-0 lead, while Jose Gimenez ...

The Ex-Rays? Starved for fans despite success on the field, the Tampa Bay Rays have been given the go-ahead by Major League Baseball to look into playing a split season in Montreal. No timetable for the possible plan was announced. An idea under consideration is for ...

Naomi Osaka lost in straight sets at the Birmingham Classic grass-court tournament on Thursday — and could soon lose her No. 1 ranking, too. The two-time Grand Slam champion never looked comfortable in a 6-2, 6-3 loss to Yulia Putintseva in the second round, choosing ...

Rui Hachimura made history on Thursday night in New York. Half a world away, the upbeat news provided a positive buzz throughout Hachimura's homeland on Friday morning. At 9:32 a.m., Hachimura's immediate future in basketball was announced to a global audience. The 21-year-old Gonzaga University forward ...

Yasutaka Okayama was the first Japanese to ever be selected in the NBA Draft. But he humbly says that the impact made by Rui Hachimura is incomparably greater than his case. "I would like to congratulate him," Okayama said in a phone interview with The ...

Zion Williamson plays with force and ferocity, a Hulk in hightops who looks as though he would never show a soft side. Draft night proved otherwise. Williamson was the No. 1 pick of the New Orleans Pelicans — a surprise to nobody who watched basketball this ...